Dulcie still full of life as big 108 comes up

Geraldton’s oldest person has celebrated yet another lap around the Sun, with her secret to a long and quality life revealed. Juniper Hillcrest Aged Care resident Dulcie Fawcett celebrated her birthday on January 30, and is believed to be the third-oldest person in WA and the 19th-oldest in Australia. Although she has lived through both World Wars, the Great Depression, 26 different Prime Ministers and has now seen two global pandemics, her eldest daughter Kathleen Cole said her mother had enjoyed a good life living on Mid West farms and in a country community. The grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of 14 was honoured with two birthday cakes, at a morning tea with her fellow residents and later in the day with her three daughters and her son-in-law. Ms Cole said she would usually have more family gather for a party, but she was limited to four visitors at a time because of COVID-19 restrictions. “Mum enjoyed it...she's at this stage where it was quite an achievement for her to recognise all three of us. Last year was quite difficult for her because of COVID, before that she'd usually have one of us visiting every second day and have conversations,” she said. “When her hearing was bad I would write on the white board, But then there were six weeks of lockdown with no visitors. After that conversations were quite difficult because her hearing and sight deteriorated for sure. “She’s now limited to two half-hour visits a week, when normally we’d see her for an hour or so about four times a week. Children aren’t allowed to visit either, so going without that stimulation hasn’t been good for her. But we understand there are risks and can’t fault the care she has had at Hillcrest.” Every morning, Mrs Fawcett gets dressed and goes to the dining room for meals, only in the last month transitioning from her walker to a wheelchair. She was born in South Australia in 1913 and moved with her family in 1927 to WA, where she grew up on a farm in Morawa. Ms Cole described her mother as having a very outdoor life helping her mother on the farm, before getting married and moving onto her husband’s Three Springs property. The family then moved to a farm in Chapman Valley when it was time for Ms Cole to begin school. A long-term member of the Country Women’s Association, Mrs Fawcett would often drive her fellow members to meetings until she was 97 years old, when she voluntarily gave up her licence because her eyesight was beginning to deteriorate. She lived independently in Geraldton from the 1980s, when her husband died, until six years ago, when she moved into Hillcrest. “She's worked hard all her life, but she's always been a lady and always well dressed,” Ms Cole said. “I've gone up to the shops in shorts and things. but she would have never done anything like that. “But mum's always been a really supportive and just very accepting. She’d always be there if you wanted advice but I have never felt that she was critical in anyway.” This positive attitude and active lifestyle may well be the secret to Mrs Fawcett’s long life, as well as eating good home-cooked meals, desserts and enjoying the occasional wine with dinner. “She’s always been a good cook...always made her own biscuits and cakes,” Ms Cole said. “She would always be asked to make her delicious “cream puffs” for CWA dances and things.” Ms Cole said her mother had a great life was “doing well for her age,” but had poor hearing, eyesight and short term memory, but otherwise hadn’t had much illness in her life and on very little medication.